On Michelle Rhee's Latest State-Policy Report Card, No 'A' Grades Once Again
StudentsFirst, the K-12 advocacy organization run by Michelle Rhee, the former District of Columbia schools chancellor, on Tuesday released its "State Policy Report Card" for 2014, giving states letter grades for their education policy environment. StudentsFirst, based in Sacramento, Calif., favors school choice, report cards for schools, performance pay for teachers, and the elimination or significant alteration of many established teacher-tenure systems.
As I say in the headline, no state received an A grade on this latest report, the group's second, just like in 2013. The only two states to receive B grades last year, Florida and Louisiana, once again are the only two states this year to get Bs (actually a B- for both states). But what's also striking about the list is that no state's overall grade dropped. In fact the number of states receiving F grades declined from 11 in the last report to seven in this lastest one. The most prominent state to leave the report card's doghouse is California, which improved along with Mississippi, New Hampshire, and South Dakota. Nevada and Georgia also improved from Ds to Cs.
(You may remember that last year, in reaction to StudentsFirst flunking California, the state's chief
